40 research outputs found
From hero of the counterculture to risk assessment : a consideration of two portrayals of the âpsychiatric patientâ
This article is based on a comparative thematic analysis of two novels that explore the experiences of institutional psychiatric care. Ken Keseyâs 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckooâs Nest is a classic of modern U.S. literature. It is argued here that Keseyâs representation of the âpsychiatric patientâ as rebel was not only a reflection of some the changing societal attitudes in postwar America, but it also helped to shape them. The challenge to the asylum system was thus cast in terms of questions of the civil rights of a marginalized group. The main themes of the novel reflect those of protesters against the abuses of the asylum systemâthe poor physical conditions, the social isolation of the patients, poor physical care and abuse, and the use of ECT and psychosurgery. The rebellious spirit of Keseyâs work is contrasted with a recent novelâNathan Filerâs 2012 award-winning The Shock of the Fall. In Filerâs work, the optimism and challenge to authority has dissipated to be replaced by a resigned fatalism reflecting the current crisis in mental health services
ECT: Misconceptions and attitudes
One hundred and seventy-eight subjects completed a questionnaire regarding ECT. The sample comprised three groups of approximately equal size: a group of patients who had received ECT, a group of visitors to ECT-treated psychiatric patients, and a group of visitors to non-ECT-treated psychiatric patients. Misconceptions about ECT were common throughout, particularly in the young, those giving films and television as a source of information and those visiting patients not receiving ECT. Fewer misconceptions occurred among those who were more highly educated or had experience of ECT either personally or via a visited friend or relative. Less fear of the procedure was expressed by those given the treatment and those who had the treatment explained to them by a doctor. Over half of the patient group denied having ECT explained to them
Experiences of a postgraduate nursing student on an acute psychiatric ward
Nursing students are a rich source of fresh perspectives on mental healthcare. While their clinical placement experiences are mostly positive, they sometimes find a lack of therapeutic engagement with patients on acute psychiatric wards. In this article, selections from a student's diary are presente
Psychoanalysis and bioethics: a Lacanian approach to bioethical discourse
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161419.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access
Silence as resistance to analysis: or, on not opening one's mouth properly
The article engages with the problematic nature of silence and its tendency to trouble qualitative inquiry. Silence is frequently read as resistanceâas an impediment to analysis or the emergence of an authentic voice. Rather than seeking methodological remedies for such impediments, the article dwells on, and in, the recalcitrance of silence. The authors read silence, via Derrida and Freud, as the trace of something Other at the heart of utteranceâsomething intractable, unspeakable, unreasonable, unanalyzable. Silence confounds interpretation and manifests, intolerably, the illusory status of speech as full âpresenceâ or living voice. Yet it also incites the search for meaning and is therefore productive. How might Method work with the alterity of silence, rather than seeking to cure or compensate for its necessary insufficiencies? The article is organized around three examples or parables of silence. Humor gets tangled up in the text further on